Heavy rain exposes poor drainage

Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

On September 13, a heavy rain hit Shanghai, triggering the first red rain storm alert this year.

The rain flooded many roads and residents complained of knee-deep water in many areas of the city. Cars drenched in water 20 centimeters to 50 centimeters deep suffered from wet engines and breakdowns, and by 9 am on September 15, the Shanghai branch of Ping An Insurance Company of China said it had received reports of over 5,400 cases of car damage, while PICC Property and Casualty Company received over 2,600 reports of car damage caused by the storm.

Part of the subway system was suspended and some metro stations were flooded. Even banks were affected, with photographs on social media showing people waiting in a bank lobby flooded with water.

The most dramatic scene occurred in the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. Water poured into the venue via its doors and windows and all the male employees were mobilized to "do relief work." From the picture posted by the center on its Weibo account, with men stopping water from flooding in by pushing against the doors with their shoulders, you could be mistaken for thinking that a tsunami had hit the city.

This shows our city is not prepared to deal with a weather event of this scale - relatively minor considering Shanghai's humid subtropical climate and coastal location - and the government must start to strengthen infrastructure, like the drainage system, to avoid a worse disaster from happening.

A city's infrastructure directly affects a city's livability, and the rainstorm this month exposed Shanghai's shortcomings.

According to historical documents, Shanghai's drainage system has a history of over 100 years. Before Shanghai opened its ports in 1843, ditches and gutters had already been built in the town to deal with rain and sewage. In 1862, the then British Concession started to plan its own drainage system, and starting from the early 20th century, the Chinese-ruled Nanshi and Zhabei districts started to build their own drainage systems too. As different areas used different standards, by the mid 20th century a drainage problem started to emerge in Shanghai and sizeable ponds could often be seen after a heavy rain.

Two rainstorms in the 1990s, one in 1997 and another in 1999, caused over 1.4 billion yuan's ($229 million) worth of damage and in response the municipal government started to revamp the drainage system.

By 2015, Shanghai plans to invest 10 billion yuan to rebuild 28 drainage systems in the city. An expert said that the best position to place the drainage pipelines are 2 meters to 5 meters underground, and yet there are not enough underground spaces in Shanghai to lay these pipelines due to rapid urban development. This would require the collaboration of different government departments to solve the problem.

Shanghai may look like a modern metropolis above ground, but a lot more work needs to be done below the surface.